SANFORD — School officials are considering closing Sanford’s oldest elementary school in the fall.

Emerson School, built in 1901, is one of the oldest schools in the state still in use as a public school and will require some major repairs if it is to continue to be used as a school. The roof leaks, the electrical service to the building needs repairs, and the first floor windows should be replaced.

The estimate just to replace the roof is $225,000 and over the next three or four years, repairs to the building could amount to as much as $250,000 to $260,000, according to Sanford Superintendent of Schools David Theoharides.

The good news is that Emerson School ranks fourth on the Maine Department of Education’s priority list for new school construction, and the State Board of Education has voted to approve going ahead with the first six school projects on the priority list. The not-so-good news is that school construction and major renovation projects generally take four to five years from approval to occupancy — and it has already been a year since the first six projects received the go-ahead.

“Do we really want to spend $250,000 to $260,000 at Emerson over the next four years?” Theoharides asked during a phone interview this week.

The superintendent met earlier this month with staff members in Sanford’s elementary schools to discuss possible restructuring ideas for the buildings that house students in kindergarten through eighth grade.

With two major school construction and renovation projects on the horizon — Sanford High School and Regional Technical School was in second place on the state’s capital improvement priority list — and increasing maintenance and repair costs at Emerson and two other older elementary schools, the school department is considering how to make the best use of its facilities and resources during the next few years.

Students are a top priority in the restructuring discussions. Theoharides said that as Sanford prepares for the transition to two new schools, the school department will strive to provide “the best educational environment that we can and the fairest educational environment that we can.”

One of the challenges the school department continually faces is trying to reduce the number of transitions from school to school that affects some students.

“Currently, some of our students may start kindergarten at one school, go to another school for grades 1, 2 and 3, then switch to another school for grades 4, 5 and 6. Other students may be fortunate to start kindergarten at a school and stay at that school until grade 6,” Theoharides wrote in a recent Superintendent’s Update.

Differences in the facilities, like a gym or a stage, also have an impact on activities at the elementary schools. For several years, school administrators have been working to provide equal opportunities for Sanford’s elementary school students despite the physical differences in the schools they attend, Theoharides said.

School administrators are considering a “phased-in transition for the 2013-14 school year” that would include moving sixth grade students from the Willard School to Sanford Junior High, closing Emerson School and moving those students — grades 1, 2 and 3 — to Willard School. That would result in Willard housing grades 1 through 5.

Also, because school officials anticipate an increase in kindergarten students next year, two kindergarten classrooms would be created at Lafayette School to relieve overcrowding at the larger elementary schools and to allow Lafayette students to be in the same school for the first four years of their schooling.

Theoharides said Sanford School Department Business Manager Scott Wyman estimated that closing Emerson School would result in a savings of about $120,000 a year on expenses like fuel, insurance, and maintenance. The savings is an important consideration since Sanford is anticipating a decrease of about $161,000 in the subsidy it receives from state funding for education.

The proposed restructuring plan would also be a step in the direction of creating three K through 5 elementary schools in Sanford — Margaret Chase Smith School in the southern part of the city, Carl J. Lamb School in the north and a new school in the central part of the city. The junior high school would then become a middle school, with grades 6 through 8.

There is, however, no guarantee the Maine Department of Education will decide to build a new elementary school in Sanford. The DOE aims to renovate wherever feasible. Over the past three construction cycles, approximately two-thirds of the projects have been additions and renovations; one-third have required new buildings to be constructed.

Theoharides said he will be setting up a meeting with community groups soon to gather their input on the proposed restructuring. He said he expects a final decision to be made in mid-March.